Prompt from @NeonArcturian (ao3 user): Oooooooooo I wonder if Henry ends up putting the reader in danger and Loki TO THE RESCUE.

A/N: this is such a long chapter but I just have so many feels after episode two! apparently new loki episodes encourage me to write more so that's something. i had loads of fun writing this chapter and i hope that you enjoy it<3 oh and keep sending prompts plsss:)

...

When you and Loki walk into the common room together, silence falls. Four out of six of the Avengers stare at the two of you for a few seconds; Thor is the only one with a smile on his face. Nat and Bruce look surprised, and Tony is frowning.

"Hi." you say pointedly, moving across the room to sit next to Nat. Loki follows you, sitting but not relaxing in the slightest. He's like a coiled spring.

Tony and Bruce resume their conversation, Thor says something to Loki and Nat turns to you.

"I heard about Henry. I'm sorry."

It's odd. You haven't yet felt real sadness about the fact that your boyfriend – ex boyfriend – is a double agent. Only humiliation, and anger, both at Henry and yourself.

"Did everyone know apart from me?" you scowl.

"No. Fury came by earlier to tell Tony confidentially, but obviously he couldn't keep quiet for long-" as Nat says these last few words Tony makes an unsavoury gesture in her direction, not breaking stride in his conversation with Bruce. Nat grins.

"Oh." you say.

"Are you alright?" Nat asks you, looking genuinely concerned. A sincere smile spreads across your face as you look back at her.

"Yes, surprisingly. But I'm not looking forward to having to pretend to still be going out with a double agent, but-"

"Excuse me?" Nat interrupts in disbelief, right as Thor says "What?!" very loudly, apparently having heard you over Loki's voice. You smile again at the level of their indignation.

"There's no way he's asking you do that. You can't do that." Nat states firmly.

"I have to." you say gloomily.

"You don't! What's he going to do, fire you? You're SHIELD's best agent." Nat protests.

"If I don't, Henry will realise that we're on to him." you say.

"Stark, did you know about this?" Thor demands of Tony across the room.

"Yes. I think Y/N's enough of an adult to make this decision on her own." Tony responds, turning to join the conversation.

"Saying that I'm 'enough of an adult' completely undermines the point you're trying to make. You do realise that don't you?" you tell Tony. Out of the corner of your eye you see one side of Loki's mouth quirk up, and pride settles in your chest.

"You know what I meant." Tony sighs.

"It's fine. I'll just... I'll have to find a subtle way of pretending to be interested in HYDRA, or wherever it is my powers come from. Maybe if he trusts me enough to tell me...". Nat is shaking her head as you speak.

"This is so messed up." she says.

"I want him caught." you say determinedly.

As it turns out, however, you didn't need to spend that whole night worrying about what you are going to say to him the next day, because he doesn't show up to work.

At ten, Fury visits your office.

"Have you seen him?" he asks you, walking in without knocking.

"No."

"Shit."

And he walks straight back out again. Loki puts his head around the door half a minute later.

"Still nothing?"

You shake your head. He walks into your office and places a coffee on your desk. You smile at it, then him.

"You do pay for those, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you?"

"Yes!"

You give him a scrutinising look before taking a sip of the coffee. He rolls his eyes and you hide another smile behind the cup. He probably sees it anyway.

"What are you doing in here anyway?" you ask him.

"Bored."

"You literally have a job here."

Loki pulls a face.

"I still don't understand these things." he tells you, gesturing at your computer.

"I showed you yesterday!"

"I wasn't paying attention."

You close your eyes and inhale, before realising that he's probably trying to distract you to calm your nerves about Henry.

"Fine. I'll show you again. Once more, understand?"

"Loud and clear." Loki says, giving you a two fingered salute.

Henry still hasn't turned up by lunch, and by the end of the day it's fairly obvious that he's not coming back. You know that that's bad news for SHIELD, but you can't help but feel relieved from a personal point of view.

Fury calls you to his office later that evening. Loki insists on accompanying you, waiting outside while Fury talks to you.

"Did you see Henry at all after you found out? Could you have tipped him off in any way?"

"No, and no. I have no idea where he's been."

"Him, Ffion and Maya have all taken off."

"All three of them? Together?" you ask in disbelief.

"Yes. My initial thoughts were that HYDRA planned this from the start and sent members that they knew would be chosen as recruits, but now that Maya is gone too I'm thinking that HYDRA must have reached out to them after they were recruited."

You don't sleep that night, unable to get the image of Maya's face out of your head. Her shock when she'd been chosen as a recruit. Had it really all been a ruse?

The next day Loki spends the best part of nine to five in your office ("bored"). It's nice. At one point he says something to make you laugh right as Amber walks past your door, head down, eyes averted. You feel a flash of sympathy for her, before it's snuffed out by a large wave of satisfaction.

The rest of the day passes without issue, but you can't shake the feeling that you're waiting for something. Fury passes you and Loki in the corridor and doesn't give either of you so much as a sideways glance.

The day after you're needed downstairs in your old department, so you don't see Loki. He still manages to get a coffee to find its way to you though.

Your old colleagues are thrilled to see you back, especially Dan. Kate, ever subtle, wastes no time in asking you about Henry.

"Oh, it's not that exciting."

But it is that exciting, you're told, and so you have to tell them the whole story. You're not sure if you're supposed to be revealing this much, but Fury hasn't spoken to you to tell you not to, so you can hardly be blamed.

The day passes slowly, and you're invited out for drinks with your old colleagues after your shift ends. You accept, a little reluctantly, but you're aware that your social life is still in need of a little... nourishment.

It's a fun night, if you leave out Dan blatantly trying to hit on you. When you leave the bar it's late, and cold outside. You pointedly begin saying goodbye to everyone, aware of what Dan is going to try and offer before he even opens his mouth.

"Want me to walk you home?"

Kate pulls a face at you while Maddie and George laugh quietly behind Dan's back.

You look at Dan, into his hopeful puppy dog eyes. He's not bad looking, and really sweet. But unlike Henry he's not arrogant with it, which almost makes him the more attractive of the two.

As you're thinking this it occurs to you that you're in love with Loki. You're slightly drunk, but that definitely has nothing to do with it. The thought sends a thrill through you, and you smile. Why have you been lying to yourself for so long? It all seems so simple.

Dan thinks you're smiling at him. Oops.

"Why, don't you think I can't look after myself?" you ask Dan, keeping a smile on your face so that he knows you're only joking.

"I didn't say that." he grins back at you.

"It's a kind offer, but I'll be okay."

Five minutes later you're walking, alone, back towards the Tower. Towards Loki. You want nothing more than to see him; it's only been a day but you miss him. You're smiling to yourself as you think of him, excitement and nerves coursing through you in equal measures. How will you tell him?

This is the thought on your mind when the dart hits you in the back of your neck.

You stop abruptly, raising your hand to the source of pain. Your fingers find a tiny dart buried in your skin.

What are you supposed to do? Is it better to leave it in or get it out? Instinct tells you to get it out, get it out. You yank it out and drop it to the floor before starting forward again, quickly, not looking behind you.

As your vision starts to blur, you hear footsteps behind you.

Shit, shit, shit.

"There's no point trying to run. You'll be unconscious in a few seconds anyway." a female voice says right behind you.

Panic floods you, and you do the only thing you've been taught to do in situations like these since you were a small child. Attack.

You spin around and allow your power to surge from your hands, knocking the woman who had spoken to the ground. Her head hits the concrete, hard, and she goes still. There are two others behind her, a man and a woman.

Should you run, or fight? You try to take a step backwards and almost fall; it feels as though all the blood in your body is travelling to your head very quickly. The man goes to the woman you just knocked down and the other woman approaches you.

You don't need to have seen the HYDRA logo before to know that it is the logo on these people's sleeves. Fighting against the drug which is fast entering your system, you swing towards the woman's face, but she easily blocks your clumsy attempt at a punch.

She's not expecting you to still be standing; you use this to your advantage and immediately bring your knee up into her lower abdomen. She keels over, clutching her stomach. This time when you swing your fist it makes satisfying contact with her teeth.

It hurts punching someone in the teeth, but it's entirely worth it in this situation.

The world lurches to one side, and then you're on your hands and knees, gasping for air, fighting to stay awake. All of a sudden you can't breathe.

"No-" you rasp desperately, slumping to the floor.

You see a foot coming towards your face, fast. Pain shoots through your skull, and then the world goes black.

...

Loki's POV

He can't sleep. He doesn't need to, but he usually does it anyway, just to pass the time.

He can't sleep until you get back. Natasha had told him that you'd gone out drinking with some of your old department, and it's only half past one in the morning. It's perfectly normal that you would be out this late.

Two o' clock comes and goes. Then three. By half past three he's pacing. He paces when he's stressed, and it usually calms him down but not tonight.

Something's wrong. Something's happened.

Or he's just being paranoid. But Loki doesn't get paranoid. Then again, he also doesn't fall in love with mortals. Where are you?

Four o' clock. Half past four.

He gets up and leaves the room, walking down thirty three flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. He goes to your office, sits in your chair. Stares at the rings on your desk left by countless cups of coffee.

He has a horrible tight feeling in his chest which he can't get rid of.

Five o' clock. It's beginning to get light; he goes down to your old department. There he finds Maddie and George asleep, slumped over a desk. He recognises them from your descriptions of them. He pokes them awake.

"Where's Y/N?"

Under any other circumstances the fear in their eyes as they woke up and saw him would have bothered him slightly, but not this morning.

"Uh, we were just... we went on a walk after we left and ended up... it's not-" George stammers, placing himself in front of Maddie slightly.

"Where is Y/N?" Loki repeats, annoyed at how his voice shakes as he asks.

"She- she went home. Is she not-?"

Loki doesn't stick around to hear the end of the sentence. He's back upstairs, outside your bedroom door, in a split second. He knocks, knowing full well that you're not there.

He knocks again, and then opens the door. The sight of your empty bed sends something like panic coursing through him, and his breath hitches in his throat. Then he's in Thor's room.

"Wake up. Wake up." Loki shoves his brother roughly.

"Y/N's gone. Something's happened." he says the minute Thor's eyes open. And Thor must see the panic in his eyes, because he gets up without hesitation.

Loki explains hurriedly what he knows, trying to keep his voice steady and calm, clasping his hands behind his back as he speaks.

"Go and talk to her colleagues. I'll get Stark." Thor says. In that moment Loki is so grateful for his brother.

Before he goes back downstairs he returns to your room and sits down on your bed, pressing his palms into his eyes. If – when, he finds you, he's going to tell you how he feels about you.

He has to tell you; if he hadn't been sure of it before he certainly is now. The thought of telling you what he truly is – because he'll have to tell you that too – scares him almost more then the thought of what might have happened to you.

Almost.

He takes a deep, shuddering breath, stands up, and teleports back downstairs.